If you're in the mood for some big-screen distraction from COVID-19, then perhaps a world-ending disaster movie is just what you need.
Greenland has just hit cinemas here with everyman action hero Gerard Butler leading the charge.
I went into this thinking here we go again, Gerard Butler saves the world, or the President, or the G7. But this is in fact light-years away from being a Greenland Has Fallen, and we're all the better for it.
Sure, Greenland is a disaster movie - there's a planet-killing comet called Clark barrelling towards Earth - but this is a much smaller story of Butler's character John, who must do everything he can to try and save his estranged wife and son.
The story explores the notion of the human survival instinct more than the end of the world as we know it and it makes for very immersive and often stressful viewing.
Deadpool's Morena Baccarin is Hope, and as a woman and mother pushed to the very brink as they face the worst of human nature, she's very compelling. Opposite Butler, they make for an authentically troubled couple who will do anything they need to save their son and themselves.
I'm not gonna lie, when I saw the trailer for Greenland I was certain I was in for a pretty much done-by-numbers disaster movie and was so very pleasantly surprised with what I got instead, with a narrative which unfolded in a plausible, convincing way augmented by a kinetic and concise delivery.
We are not talking awards-worthy or life-changing, but Greenland really is a great big screen COVID distraction and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Four stars.
